Page 20 of The Cowboy's Close Quarters Claim

Reaching between her legs from underneath, I feel her fingers stroke my balls and there's no more time for teasing.

Rearing back, I relish the little whimper she makes at my retreat, but it's the loud moan I get from her when I thrust back in that spurs me on to do it again, and again, until both of us are grunting and grappling; Clem with her hands twisted in the sheets beneath her, me with my fingertips gripping her hips so hard she'll have battle scars of her own in the morning.

Sweat drips off my brow and I clench my jaw, determined to ride out the storm that I can feel brewing in the increasing flutters of Clem's vise grip around my desperate cock.

But when she's bucking beneath me and calling out my name like I'm her goddamn hero, I lose my senses.

It's just me and Clem and our bodies coming together with wet sounds and our hard breaths, then the tingle in my spine and the tension in my balls right before everything narrows to a pinpoint while I empty myself deep with a guttural roar as my seed paints Clem's womb with a primal effort to take root.

"When are you gonna let me put a baby in here?" I ask sleepily with my head resting on her stomach. My hand runsover the soft hills and valleys of her body, and I'm eager to see how they'll change when she's growing my child.

"Thought maybe we'd do things in order," she murmurs somewhere above me, with her hand sliding through my hair softly. "Maybe get the preacher and the license first; plan a party, invite our friends and family. Then we can worry about hiring me an assistant to take over the parts of the job I won't be able to do when you knock me up."

"Does that mean you're finally agreeing to let me put my ring on your finger?"

This is news. I've been after her for weeks. I've known for a while that she'd made up her mind, but this is the first time she's mentioned it out loud for me to hear.

"Yeah, yeah, O'Leary, I'm gonna make an honest man of ya, so you can stop your worrying."

"A man never stops worrying over a woman like you, darling."

Crawling up her body gets me hard all over again and I know by the time I get to her sweet lips that she's going to sass me about having to get up early to be back at work.

I also know she won't be sassing for long.

Just like I know she'll be sassing me for the rest of our lives.

EPILOGUE 1

One Year Later

Clementine

"Oh my gosh, thank you, Mrs. O'Leary! I'm so excited!"

I bristle at being addressed as Mrs. O'Leary. Not because I'm ashamed of either the name or the title, mind you, I just hate the formality.

"Clem is good," I remind the bubbling young woman on the other end of the video call. "It's not a done deal yet, you need to clear things with HR and Ranger will want to touch base with you before you get your official offer. It'll probably take about a week."

Anjelica is nothing like me. In most ways, at least.

Jet black curls bob with the movement of her head as she nods and emotional tears fill her perfectly lined eyes.

"Thank you so much, Mrs. O-- Clem." She catches herself and I can tell my approval means a lot to her when I smile at her.

It's going to be interesting enough to work with another woman, let alone one who's so different from myself.

Anjie's a few years younger than me, but she just graduated with a bachelor's degree in animal science and she's got real-world experience working with large animals.

Maybe married life has made me soft, or maybe my maternal instincts are already starting to kick in, but I like the girl and I can give her the opportunity that took years to come around for myself.

"O'Leary! Get your ass out here, pronto!"

Sounds like my husband thinks I've got something to answer for.

Remembering not to holler back while I'm still on the call with Anjie, I turn back to the beaming face on my office computer screen.

"I'll be back in touch as soon as I have the final word from Ranger. You should hear from someone about housing in a day or two."

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